Uncharted 2: Among Thieves •
Page 3

Eurogamer:
Now you've got multiplayer, what do you think sets it apart from other similar games?

Justin Richmond:
Everything? [Laughs] The big thing is obviously that there's an environment people can interact with. There's been other cover-based games and those with shooter aids, but there's no game that combines the two so well. You can climb up on top of a ledge, pull someone down, get up there, get behind cover, maybe jump down and break their neck, climb up a wall and maybe pull someone else down. There's no games that replicate that feel.

One of the criticisms in beta was that we didn't have enough vertical, so we went into some of the maps that weren't finished and added even more and pushed it really, really far. There's a map that's not in this demo, that has like seven storeys of verticality and you can get up on these sniper perches and a ton of other stuff. The way you interact with your environment and with other players is totally different and I think that because we spend so much time with the controls it's really tight and it works really well.

Eurogamer:
What's your favourite part of the game? Which part would you tell your parents about to really dazzle them?

Justin Richmond:
There's three. Am I allowed three?

Eurogamer:
If you must!

Justin Richmond:
Scene one is what we showed at E3: the demo of the collapsing building, because that sequence of getting up on the roof and finding that helicopter, into the collapsing building, does things that no one has ever done before. When you climb on top of that hotel and you look down at that vista, it just takes your breath away. Even now.

And then the collapsing building does things that are amazing. It seems simple when you look at it, but you've got Drake, you've got a friendly AI, you've got AI, on a moving floor that's falling through space, interactive with objects that you can take cover on but are falling and rotating at the same time - you know that thing with the helicopter? I mean, it's crazy that we pulled it off. So that's just a mind-blowing sequence.

The train is another thing that looks simple but is technically, hugely complex. The train moves through 40 miles of track. It's two or three discrete sets, so you have a jungle set, a tunnel set and then a mountain set. Again, you have all the simple things like AI moving around on a moving train that's moving through space - that took a huge amount of work.

This is Flynn. He's what Drake could have been.

You have Drake interacting with an environment that's moving through space like that - that's hugely complex. Ragdolling - how does that work? It didn't work for a long time. How do the guns work on the train? When you're playing it it's awesome, but technically it's hugely impressive and there's no load at all. Most games wouldn't be able to pull that off - I don't think there's any games that could pull that off.

And the last one is simple, but I think it's amazing, and it's when you get to [...I've cut out a massive spoiler here, this is sanitised -Ed] and it starts to pour rain and floods. It's awesome.

It just looks so cool. You move through this environment, it's been stunning and nice and beautiful, all of a sudden it starts to rain a bit and you come to this doorway, you hear thunder, it starts to pour rain and then you jump down and then there's this flood happening and there's bad guys standing in there and they get wet and you get wet and they look like they get wet.

The rain's interacting with the flood: when you kill somebody the water pushes the bodies downriver. That is just... That's not a set-piece, I just think it's really cool.

Eurogamer:
So those are the three. Do you have any other ones?

Arne Meyer:
I really love the train.

Eurogamer:
That is also our editor's choice.

Justin Richmond:
One of the really cool things about Uncharted 2 is seeing these huge sets and thinking, "I'm going to get over there. I don't know how to do it yet, but I'm going to get over there."

My favourite set-up is when you get to the... [I'm protecting you from spoilers again - Ed] and you come to this area and the bad guys are ahead of you and in place, but they don't know you're coming, and you can stealth your way through this whole bit. Probably 15 minutes of gameplay.

Justin Richmond:
I think Chloe's my favourite character, besides Drake - obviously I love Drake. But I think Chloe's awesome and she's really, really funny and plays off Drake... Oh, no no no! I love Sully! Can I have the three of them? Does that count? I guess if I have to pick one then I'd love to see another adventure with Chloe in, for sure.

Arne Meyer:
I'm going to be traditional: I really like Lazarevic. I think he really emphasises this badass villain. The model looks great. We're always creating these human antagonists and he looks badass enough that you're scared of him, and that's visually, because of his attitude. Oh, and Drake.

Justin Richmond:
Yeah, Lazarevic, he's awesome. And Flynn... Ha ha.

Eurogamer:
Tom Bramwell's choice is Temzin.

Justin Richmond:
Oh, he likes Temzin? Temzin's awesome. Actually, the guy who plays Temzin is really cool, too. He came into the office and he did a bunch of reads of our Tibetan stuff. The cool thing about Temzin is that he doesn't speak any English, and we don't translate it. So he talks to you and you don't know what he's saying, and I don't think that a lot of games would do that. And a little known fact: Cristophe [Balestra's] children are in the game as the children villagers.